D&D 5E Rank the Official 5e Adventures

[Burnside]

My ranking & explanations.

1. Tomb of Annihilation - I am currently playing this and our party is in the final dungeon. I have not read the adventure; will do so once we finish it. Great story, great characters, plenty of variety, wonderful locations. Tomb of the Nine Gods is the best dungeon I've seen in 5E with the possible exception of Castle Ravenloft. Adventure's only weakness is the beginning; I would benefit from a railroad kickstart a la Death House to get to level 2 or 3 before opening up. Port Nyanzaru is the weakest part of the adventure.

2. Lost Mine of Phandelver - Have run this twice as a DM. As others have stated, pretty much perfect for its intended purpose as a gateway drug for this edition. It has its flaws but they are very easy for a DM to fix/improve upon.

3. Curse of Strahd - Have run as a DM. A classic; preserves all the strengths of the original and improves on it.

4. Out of the Abyss - Have read. Some of the best set piece encounters I've ever seen. Valuable as an Underdark source book even if you never run it as an adventure. Suffers from disorganized presentation; not at all as user-friendly as later adventures.

5. Ghosts of Saltmarsh - Have read. 2 great adventures, 1 good one, 2 mediocre ones, and 2 bad ones, and a TON of great setting material and resources Danger at Dunwater and the Final Enemy should have been re-imagined instead of re-printed.

6. Dragon of Icespire Peak - Currently running as DM. For its intended purpose, this is inferior to LMoP and does not provide a complete sense of the game in the way that LMoP does. Contains some fun scenarios. Some curiously flawed and badly balanced encounters considering the edition was mature, seasoned, and well-tested when it was published. Good if you're looking for fun, mostly combat-oriented serial adventures without much deep thought required. The three follow-up adventures on DNDBeyond aren't very good.

7. Tales from the Yawning Portal - Have run some as DM, read the rest. The most fun and playable at the table for most 5E players will be the two 3E adventures. The 1E stuff mostly does not hold up imo; adventures have evolved for the better.

7. Waterdeep: Dragon Heist - Have read. Ambitious but quite flawed. Feels like it needed more time in development. Ends with a whimper. Some fun set piece encounters along the way, and easy to run for the most part.

8. Horde of the Dragon Queen - Have read. Not quite as horrible as its rep, but not very good. Fairly easy to prep & run.

9. Storm King's Thunder - Have run parts of it as DM. I don't see what others love about this one. A huge hassle to prep, and I can't see where it's worth the effort to do so. Weak story, and the set pieces aren't as good as many of the other books offer.

Hard to judge:
Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage. This is boring as hell to read, but might be fun at the table.

Haven't read or played:
Rise of Tiamat
Princes of the Apocalypse
Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus
Hunt for the Thessalhydra
Rick & Morty
Acq Inc

 

[Prakriti]

1. Lost Mine of Phandelver
2. Curse of Strahd
3. Out of the Abyss*
4. Tales from the Yawning Portal*
...
99. Storm King's Thunder

* TftYP is only worse than OotA if you're running it as a campaign (which I think is a bad idea -- the adventures aren't even loosely connected). If judged as a group of stand-alone modules, then TftYP is better than OotA, especially if you want to plunder it for ideas.

I'm familiar with a lot of the other adventure books, but not enough to confidently rank them.

 

[pukunui]

This players tend to do whatever though but a themed adventure needs buy in from the players.

I haven't had this happen in any of my games since I started making sure everyone was on the same page right from the start. In my experience, when the players want to go on the adventure, they will make PCs that want to go on it too. I think it helps having the right players, too. Most of the people I'm playing with these days just want to have a bit of fun killing monsters and scoring some sweet loot. They're not all that concerned with what their fictional character "wants", so they're all quite happy to just go along for the ride. I haven't had a player refuse the hooks and insist on having their PC go it alone in a long time.

That was a key point of mine: the scenario appeared to be based on the core concept that Guild membership and status would be important to the players.

But it was quickly apparent those points would not be of much, if any, value once past the scenario's end.

Part of the problem, admittedly, was that the GM was one of those who always sticks to the course of the scenario as it is laid out in the book.

But the scenario did not give much of answer to the question 'why are we running around in a blizzard?'

Yeah, fair enough. That is a problem with the adventure itself, not just a problem with your DM's delivery. I honestly don't get how anyone can rank Dragon Heist above Tyranny of Dragons. I've run both, and I managed to get through the whole of the latter with satisfied players. With the former, my players threw their hands up in disgust by the time we reached the egregiously railroady chase sequence and I just couldn't bring myself to finish it.

I'm sure I'll get jumped on for saying this ... but I really haven't been impressed with much of what's been produced for DMs Guild. Not even the so-called Guild Adepts are all that great in my opinion. I think it's no coincidence that Dragon Heist, which appears to have been primarily written by James Haeck and James Introcaso, is so bad. I understand that BG: Descent into Avernus was written by a committee of more than a dozen DMs Guild writers, which probably explains its inconsistent presentation as well. (I am also seriously disliking the seeming trend towards putting out incomplete hardcovers that require the DMs Guild-equivalent of DLC to flesh out.)

 

[vpuigdoller]

Top Tier:
Tomb of Annihilation
Curse of Strahd
Lost Mine of Phandelver

Mid Tier:
Ghost of Saltmarsh
Tales of the Yawning Portal
Out of the Abyss

Low Tier:
Tyranny of Dragons
Storm King Thunder

I think Princess of the Apocalypse and Descent in to Avernus might fit the mid tier after reading them.

Havn't played or run Dragon of Icespire Peak.

 

[dave2008]

Top Tier
Curse of Strahd
Tales of the Yawning Portal

Mid tier
Storm King's Thunder

Low Tier
Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Tomb of Annihilation

Junk
Lost Mines of Phandelver
Descent into Avernus
Dragon Heist
Dungeon of the Mad Mage
Out of the Abyss
Tyranny of Dragons
Princes of the Apocalypse
Murder in BG

JD, have you run or played all of these? I thought in another thread you said you had not. Personally, I will not rank an adventure I haven't run or played.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Exactly. But in the Heist, the buy-in was deeply flawed (Guild status) and then hammered home through the 'you get a bar as payment and can't sell it, so you're part of the community no matter what'.

In any adventure the hook needs to be tailored to the players involved. My players aren't particularly motivated by loot, which would make the vast majority of published adventures "deeply flawed" if run completely as written.

But give them innocents to save or a mystery to unravel or a villain to bring to justice and they will be in.

 

[Merifluous]

Terrific: Curse of Strahd
Really Good: Phandelver, OoTA
Good: DotMM, RoT, HoDQ, ToA, SKT, Penny Arcade

I own, but haven't ran, all the others. I've ran SKT, HoDQ and RoT to completion, played OoTA to completion, ran about half of SKT and Phandelver. I'm running parts of DotMM right now. I've just read the others on my list.

By and large everything is plenty of fun to run. I cut a lot of junk out of SKT, but the parts I did use were all really good. I had no issues with HoTDQ and RoT and really enjoyed certain parts (the caravan ride, the council) in both. I didnt feel like I had to stretch as much with it as SKT. and strahd was fantastic, I just couldnt keep up with two campaigns at once. Though honestly it is also the hardest to DM as it is so sandboxy and a lot of meaningful NPCs that are hard to keep up with.

 

[generic]

Top Tier:

1. Lost Mine of Phandelver: It's a brilliant little introduction to D&D, and is great fun for players new and old alike. Having run it myself, I can attest that LMoP is very fun at the table. The book (pamphlet) itself is well-organized, and offers enough setting detail to intrigue the players without becoming exhaustive. 4.9/5.0

2. Curse of Strahd: Atmospheric, interesting, and serious while still being fun to play in, CoS is an enjoyable adventure for players and DM alike. The NPCs, setting, encounters, and story are all well-designed. The maps are very nice, especially that one incredibly beautiful map which, sadly, the players will not see. Strahd is a great sympathetic villain, and the adventure stands out in terms of setting. 4.8/5.0

3. Tomb of Annihilation: It's an amazing jungle hexcrawl with an amusingly horrifying dungeon which serves as the finale. The setting is unique, and the NPCs are fun and interesting to run. Perhaps the greatest strength of the adventure is its hex-crawling style. In addition, ToA is one of the best adventure paths to cannibalize, as it contains a number of distinct locales with enemies both hilarious and horrific. The touch is a tad too comedic for my taste in some areas, but, in others, it seems altogether too appropriate. 4.7/5.0

4. Ghosts of Saltmarsh: The adventures featured are all reprints, but they're good reprints. This sourcebook ranks high on the basis of its many, many random encounter tables and small locales, which are actually interesting. The adventures reprinted within are a cohesive story of sorts, and the Greyhawk setting is a nice addition for people who crave something other than the Forgotten Realms. There are two adventures (Sahaugin genocide, and "fix a ship") which I find less interesting, but Tammeraut's Fate and the original Saltmarsh adventures, as well as The Styes, are all very nice. 4.5/5.0

Mid Tier:

5. Out of the Abyss: The setting is flavorful, and the adventure is nice. However, the adventure suffers from a weak beginning, a directionless portion that is handled inexpertly, and too broad a scope. As other posters have mentioned, this adventure would have been better if the demons were dropped, and Drow were given more of a place in the adventure or if, perhaps, a specific demon lord or lady was focused on. 4.1/5.0

6. Tyranny of Dragons (both HotDQ and RoT): Although the beginning is majorly flawed, this adventure series is, overall, actually not particularly awful. The combat between draconic forces is intriguing, and there is actually a great scope for role-play, as well as combat, in the hands of an experienced DM. ToD earns its mid tier ranking thanks to good monster design, and 'classic' experience, and potential in the hands of a skilled DM. 3.7/5.0

7. Storm King's Thunder: This adventure really should be much shorter than it is, and should begin at 5th level. Other than that, it's a fun re-hash of Against the Giants with a large open world segment, room for role-play, and quite a bit of combat. Overall, the adventure is kind of weak in terms of justification for conflict, but the resolution is fairly fun, and well designed. What it lacks is originality. It's just more of what has already been done, and not just before 5E, but in other 5E adventures. It does not justify itself, and forces you to pay for content that's basically just useless filler meant to get the party up to 5th level. 3.3/5.0

Tales from the Yawning Portal: It's a bunch of adventures, some good, some not-so-good. Enough has been said. 3.1/5.0

Low Tier:

8. Princes of the Apocalypse: As a recreation of a conflict between Elemental Evil and a group of heroes, PoTA is acceptable, but does not really have a defining storyline. The adventure is a set of good dungeon crawls with a semi-decent story. 2.9/5.0

9. Dragon Heist: It's not a heist, 'dragons' are coins, and the adventure is a rail-roaded mess of ideas. It was as though the adventure's formation came from mashing John Wick, and perhaps some Bond Films, together with a bucketload of distinct, and often anachronistic, fantasy tropes, all the while drizzling 'heist film' onto the top. The adventure is on rails, and not in an enjoyable way. 2.1/5.0

Trash Tier:

Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage: This book is nothing more than bad (yes, actually bad) maps that look as though they were made in MS Paint slapped onto a pitiful, story-free megadungeon that fulfills neither the promise of Undermountain nor modern expectations in terms of story. It is very boring to read through, and the levels of the dungeon are not as inter-connected as they should be. It reads like a boring version of Diablo, turned into an RPG adventure. Halaster is an Acererak-level jokester, rife with insanity, and the main villains are rarely foreshadowed. 1.5/5.0

Do Not Own/Have Not Read or Played In:

Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus
Hunt for the Thessalhydra
Rick & Morty
Acq Inc
Dragon of Icespire Peak

 

[Merifluous]

So I got curious and went through and gave every adventure a score based on how folks ranked them (no score if that person didnt rank it, lower is better) then averaged that and ordered the list. There are probably more statistically sound ways of doing this, but I thought this quick and dirty method was good enough.

Adventure	Average Rank
Curse of Strahd	1.69
Lost Mines of Phandelver	2.36
Tomb of Annihilation	2.91
Ghosts of Saltmarsh	5.18
Descent into Avernus	5.40
Tales from the Yawning Portal	5.77
Out of the Abyss	6.38
Storm King's Thunder	6.75
Princes of the Apocalypse	8.11
Dungeon of the Mad Mage	8.30
Tyranny of Dragons	8.31
Dragon Heist	8.33

I had heard good things about Dragon Heist, surprised it was just as bad as ToD. You can also clearly see tiers like many of us used - the top 3 in one tier, a middle tier, then the last four really have indistinguishable scores. And I really need to get my group to reconsider Tomb again

 

[Parmandur]

So I got curious and went through and gave every adventure a score based on how folks ranked them (no score if that person didnt rank it, lower is better) then averaged that and ordered the list. There are probably more statistically sound ways of doing this, but I thought this quick and dirty method was good enough.

Adventure	Average Rank
Curse of Strahd	1.69
Lost Mines of Phandelver	2.36
Tomb of Annihilation	2.91
Ghosts of Saltmarsh	5.18
Descent into Avernus	5.40
Tales from the Yawning Portal	5.77
Out of the Abyss	6.38
Storm King's Thunder	6.75
Princes of the Apocalypse	8.11
Dungeon of the Mad Mage	8.30
Tyranny of Dragons	8.31
Dragon Heist	8.33

I had heard good things about Dragon Heist, surprised it was just as bad as ToD. You can also clearly see tiers like many of us used - the top 3 in one tier, a middle tier, then the last four really have indistinguishable scores. And I really need to get my group to reconsider Tomb again

I dunno about statistical validity per se, but this seems about right on a gut reaction level. Dragon Heist can be good fun, and gas some great material, but like ToD YMMV.